Indigenous

Karl Habeck on programming diverse community radio options

WOJB Woodland Community Radio general manager Karl Habeck describes obligations and opportunities of programming a broad range of news and cultural radio shows for audiences in northwest Wisconsin.

By Erica Ayisi | Here & Now

September 30, 2025

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Karl Habeck on programming a broad range of news and cultural radio shows for audiences.


ICT News

Karl Habeck:
We carry a lot of programming that we're obligated to carry as a CPB — Corporation [for] Public Broadcasting — member station. Some of the funds that we did receive from them were to be allocated for their specific programming, and we had a choice. I mean, you could pick out a list of programs. You typically, when everybody's going to choose it, the NPR "Morning Edition," NPR "Weekend Edition" news programming — we air both of those. We also air — you know, anything, there's something for everybody — "The Moth." I don't know if you're familiar with "The Moth," which is an interesting show where people come on the air and they tell their stories in front of an audience, and it can be a story about just about anything. But it's a very well-produced show, and sometimes, it'll pull your heart strings, sometimes, it'll make you laugh. It's just a good all-around radio show. We do a lot of music programming, we do a lot of cultural programming, we do science programming, we do health programming. Every genre of music you can imagine, we do programming on, we'll do local programming, local news, local weather, local events, such as "Community Calendar." We'll get local people in and talking about their business or their organization or their upcoming event. It's just a real community-minded station. But yet, we want to reach out and have a little bit of something for everybody, because a lot of 'em up here, we're the only game in town as far as real radio. I mean, there's other radio stations around here, but they might have a DJ for a couple OF hours in the morning, a live person, but I mean, here your dog gets lost, you can call in, and we'll say, "Hey, somebody's lost their dog over at Mosquito Brook Road, keep your eyes open for a red collie with a blue collar," you know? So, that's just something you're not going to find all over, but we do it here.

This report is in collaboration with our partners at ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.